Cold Therapy For Laminitis

Some horses that develop laminitis make uneventful recoveries and go on to lead long useful lives.

Cold therapy for laminitis.

The cold treatment decreased soft tissue perfusion in the hoof to 80 5 percent of pre cooled values. Standing the horse in ice water is an old time remedy but now veterinarians have ramped up the treatment and discovered how helpful cryotherapy can be. Some 30 minutes after discontinuing the cold therapy soft tissue perfusion increased to 86 6 percent of pre treatment values. Cryotherapy or cold therapy has been shown to prevent laminitis in the at risk equine patient and is often recommended for relieving pain and inflammation in the acutely laminitic horse.

Cold is thought to act by reducing enzymatic activity in the laminar tissue of the foot thereby reducing some of the destructive processes that take place in laminitis. Scientists and veterinarians disagree about the actual effect the physiological reactions the correct application method and minimum temperature. Cold has an anti inflammatory effect causes vasoconstriction narrowing of blood vessels provides pain relief and lowers the metabolism of the tissues. You ice down the horse s feet just as you would an injured knee or ankle in a human.

No single treatment works in every case of laminitis but researchers are learning more about what s likely to work best in each of the three types. Do not leave it on for more than 30 minutes. For safety a 2 c 35 f minimum needs to be respected and a cooling period not exceeding 72 hours. Buckets or therapy boots filled with ice water.

Apply cold therapy to the feet to reduce inflammation and pain but not if cold induced laminitis feet cold management of laminitis feed low nsc 10 diet based on grass hay protein minerals vitamins linseed do not starve. Your veterinarian may be able to advise you on new therapies that may include standing your horse in ice water to prevent the onset of laminitis after a predisposing cause such as a retained placenta or a known grain overload. It is not yet known whether applying cold therapy in cases of endocrinopathic laminitis is helpful. Cold therapy is much the same as it is in humans.